A persistent safety issue is that of needle-stick and other sharps-related injuries to OR personnel, including scalpel or blade-related injuries. The Center for Disease Control estimates that each year approximately 385,000 needle-stick and other sharps-related injuries (averaging over 1000 a day), of which blade-related injuries account for almost 10%. Scalpel blades are necessarily extremely sharp and, as a result, are more likely to penetrate the flesh of a surgeon or other OR personnel more deeply than needle-stick injuries. Blade-related injuries can therefore be monumental for OR personnel, including contracting diseases stemming from blood-borne pathogens such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis-C, hepatitis-B, etc . . . , as well as the loss of income during recovery and rehabilitation and the potential loss of occupation due to permanent physical injuries (e.g. to the hand of a surgeon).
Wrong-site surgeries are also a persistent problem within the healthcare system. As defined by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), wrong-site surgery includes wrong side or site of the body, wrong procedure, and wrong-patient surgeries. A multitude of factors have been identified that may contribute to an increased risk of wrong-site surgery. Despite the implementation of strategies to prevent wrong patient, wrong site, wrong side surgery, regrettably this seemingly most preventable of complications still occurs. The incorrect assumption of a medical professional's infallibility, coupled with organized medicine's focus on the individual's medical mistakes rather than a systems approach have contributed to this problem.
In an attempt to improve patient safety, compliance with the Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery is required of all Joint Commission accredited organizations. As a part of the universal protocol, a “pause” or “time out” is required. This serves as a final verification of: (1) the correct patient; (2) the correct procedure, site and side; and as applicable, (3) the availability of implants or instrumentation, prior to making incision. This is a time when all members of the surgical team are supposed to pause to review the case, and agree that the correct procedure is being done on the correct patient, at the correct site, and on the correct side. In theory, this would ensure that any errors that had been made could be detected prior to incision. In reality, the “time out” seldom occurs; and when it does, not in any uniform or regular manner. Without a uniform or regular procedure, ritualized compliance, i.e. going through the motions, results in many institutions. The universal protocol cannot enforce a pause, and does not specify a protocol as to what should happen during a pause. The universal protocol does not specify a particular time for the pause to occur, and it does not specify a protocol as to what should happen during the pause; that is to say, what information should be communicated by whom, and to whom. While guidelines may be suggested, each institution determines how to comply, therefore standardization is not achieved.
The present invention is directed at addressing the unmet needs of preventing or reducing blade-related injuries to OR personnel, including doing so while also preventing or reducing wrong-site surgeries.